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Wah standards

  • 14/04/2003

In 1984, the World Health Organization (who) gave a guideline value of 1.5 milligram per litre (mg/l) as the maximum permissible level for fluoride in drinking water. This reflected the state of research on fluoride: a certain amount was considered good for human health. But more research changed this attitude.

According to United Nations Children's Fund (unicef), "studies indicate that fluoride has no beneficial health effects. Rather, fluoride destroys teeth. Fluoride has no role in prevention of dental caries, which is basically a bacterial dental disorder'. who guideline value is unsafe for some countries. In tropical countries such as India, people drink more water, hence consume more fluoride. Also, many food items have high concentration of fluoride. " who only gives guidelines. The Indian government is free to notify its own acceptable limits, the reason being that Indian population is already exposed to fluoride through many sources,' says A K Sengupta, national professional officer (sanitary engineer), who, New Delhi. During an International Workshop on Fluoride and Defluoridation held in Thailand in November 2000, it was recommended that who should reduce its guideline value from 1.5 mg/l to 0.5 mg/l. According to Sengupta, who should come out with new guidelines for drinking water by end-2003.

The Indian government, through the Bureau of Indian Standards (bis), prescribed the acceptable level of 1 mg/l fluoride in drinking water in 1992. But that does not mean that 1 mg/l limit is safe. Malnourished children can be affected even at fluoride levels below one mg/l, says unicef. Moreover, Indian standards are canonically vague. There exists an "acceptable level': 1 mg/l. But there also exists a "cause of rejection' level (1.5 mg/l): the water may not be acceptable, but still may be tolerated in the absence of an alternative and better source. Thus, it is shocking and yet legal that the government continues to follow the 1.5 mg/l limit in its water programmes. "Setting up of guideline value for fluoride in water requires carrying out large scale epidemiological studies. No such studies have been carried out in India,' says a rgndwm official.

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